And now for the details…

I was hunting through my fridge at the end of the weekend for another veggie to go with our meal. I was hoping to find something I could grill, but the vegetable bin was pretty much empty and all I had left was celery and carrots. I have never really associated either with grilling, but at the same time, why not?

I chose the carrots, and if I was going to do them on the grill, I clearly needed to dress them with something. Some kind of dressing that would be sweet, salty, maybe even a tad bit spicy. I was already going down the thought process of soy and rice wine vinegar. But when I was debating between sugar or honey in my brain for the sweetness factor, I remembered another option I have in my fridge: plum extract.

I found the plum extract at our Japanese/Korean grocery store and bought it on a whim, without much thinking what I would do with it. The original inkling to buy it came from memories of the homemade Ume wine (a wine made from soaking Ume plums in liquor) we had at the ryokan we stayed in when we were in Nara, Japan. That Ume wine has haunted my since. It was sweet, tart, and fruity, and quite thick due to the high alcohol content. I figured this extract could be added to sparkling water and at least give me some remembrance of the flavour of that wine. But I regularly forget about it and it sits on the shelf of the fridge door, morosely waiting for the day it can be pulled out and become a feature of one of our meals (yes, I truly do feel this way about inanimate objects, I cannot help myself. Can’t you just see the sad eyes the bottle must be giving me every time I close the fridge and haven’t chosen it?) Now is it’s time!

After we have cleaned the carrots and set them aside, we will whisk the marinade ingredients (i.e. all the remaining ingredients in the recipe) together in a small bowl with a fork (or a tiny whisk; nod to you Binging with Babish). Yes, even the plum extract.

Next, brush the carrots on all sides with the marinade, and place on the hot grill.

As the carrots cook, check in on them every couple of minutes. Re-brush with the marinade liberally, turn them, then let them cook some more.

Pretty soon, the carrots will kind of look like misshapen wieners with grill marks. As long as they have cooked to your preferred level of softness, they are ready to come off the grill. Plate them, and brush them one last time with the marinade, and maybe adding a bit of lettuce for a super kitschy presentation, and you are ready to enjoy!

Happy eating.